The forecast was for lots of rain, but lining up on the start line at 15'C it seemed more like summer. I gambled on wearing arm warmers and leg warmers, short sleeved shirt and no gilet.
Suddenly, without warning, the klaxon sounded and everyone moved forward.......... and into the tape and loads of confusion. To the right of us, in haze of perfume ;-), the four hour ladies had been sent off first. We, the four hour men were to follow ten minutes later.
The klaxon sounded and we set off on a wide fire road in to a fierce headwind for about 500m then a sharp left and into the first singletrack, which was very slippery. I was fighting for control here as my rear wheel went sideways on every bend.(I was using a quite worn Bontrager revolt, which has minimal tread to start with.) Back out onto 100m of fire road and a sharp right into the bombhole, more of a steep drop in and a low exit really. The next singletrack was the best of the whole course, it was slightly uphill, very smooth, bermed with a tailwind!! It was so fast that it was difficult not to brake into the bends :-). As I leave the first section of singletrack, I realise how hot I am! My shirt is open to the waist, I've rolled down my armwarmers, but my legs are hot! I never get hot legs, must remember to shave them for the summer ;-0
Out onto another fire road and into more singletrack and so on,
á la Thetford. Most of the fire roads are into head winds and the singletrack is very hard going and boggy. The last section of singletrack is spectacularly muddy and it's deep. A couple of guys in front stall and have to run, I find a way through the trees, but this always risks a puncture. Then onto the last fire road into the arena, the tailwind instantly lets me shove the chain fully to the right! As I pass through the timing area I look back and see Paul on the opposite side of the arena about 30s behind. I'm sticking to my plan of keeping it steady for the few laps after blowing up in the previous Thetford race. In fact my horoscope this morning said. "Your energy levels are high dear Sagitarius, but don't burn yourself out!"
Back into the bomb hole and into the fantastic singletrack I'm riding at the back in a group of four. They are three big guys and they are holding me up in the singletrack, onto the fire road and the guy on the front hammers away. I struggle to stay on and we're back into the next singletrack and they're holding me up again. On the next fire road, I hear Russell Grant's camp voice full of admonishment in my head "
your energy levels are high dear sagitarius, but.........." So I let them go and get back to keeping it steady and at the same time reassuring myself with the old " I get you later when you blow up" line :-)
Next time through the timing area Paul is only just entering the arena, so more than a minute adrift. So, I keep lap three steady too and this time at the end, I don't see him in the arena at all.
This startles me a little and I think that he must have had a problem. Maybe he's punctured or broken his chain? So, I decide to start pushing hard, the reason is that: Paul is three points below me in the overall as we go into this race. The points for the series are taken as a best of three from four races. The problem is I forgot to enter the next race in the series and it's full. Paul is entered though! So this is my last chance to get a lead on him. :-) By pushing hard now I hope to get as many people between me and him to 'soak up the points'. The course is drying out quite a bit now and a lot of the singletrack is getting faster, some parts especially the very muddy one is much worse. This time through on the fourth lap lots of people are walking it, some are just standing staring wondering where to go. Luckily I managed to skim across the edge on some slimy roots without dropping in to the quagmire. I continue pushing hard for the next two laps and manage six laps 66km in 04.09. Paul finished in 04.18. I was 7th vets and he was 10th. The big boys managed seven laps.
Another great Thetford race :-)
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